CHAPTER XXV.
BUILDINGS, MEDICINE, BURIAL, PHYSICAL PECULIARITIES, AND CHARACTER OF THE MAYAS.
Scanty Information given by the Early Voyagers—Private Houses of the Mayas—Interior Arrangement, Decoration, and Furniture—Maya Cities—Description of Utatlan—Patinamit, the Cakchiquel Capital—Cities of Nicaragua—Maya Roads—Temples at Chichen Itza and Cozumel—Temples of Nicaragua and Guatemala—Diseases of the Mayas—Medicines used—Treatment of the Sick—Propitiatory Offerings and Vows—Superstitions—Dreams—Omens—Witchcraft—Snake-Charmers—Funeral Rites and Ceremonies—Physical peculiarities—Character.
A full résumé of the principles of Maya architecture, gathered from observations of ruins made by modern travelers, will be given in another part of this work.[1126] I shall, therefore, without regard to the inevitable scantiness and unsatisfactory nature of such information, confine myself in this chapter to the descriptions furnished by the old writers, who saw the houses and towns while they were occupied by those who built them and the temples before they became ruins, or at least were contemporaries of such observers.
The accounts given of the dwellings of the Mayas are very meagre. The early voyagers on the coast of Yucatan, such as Grijalva and Córdova, saw well-built houses of stone and lime, with sloping roofs thatched with straw or reeds; or, in some instances, with slates of stone;[1127] but this is all they tell us, and, indeed, they had little opportunity for close examination; the natives of those parts were fierce and warlike, and little disposed to submit to invasion, so that the handful of adventurers had barely time to look hastily about them after effecting a landing before they were driven back wounded to their boats. Here, as elsewhere, too, the temples and larger buildings naturally attracted their sole attention, both because of their strangeness and of the treasures which they were supposed to or did contain. These men were soldiers, gold-hunters; they did not travel leisurely; they had no time to examine the architecture of private dwellings; they risked and lost their lives for other purposes. Bishop Landa, however, has something to say on the subject of Maya dwellings. The roof, he says, was covered with straw, which they had in great abundance, or with palm-leaves, which answered the purpose admirably. A considerable pitch was given to the roof, that the rain might run off easily. The house was divided in its length, that is, from side to side, by a wall, in which several doorways were left as a means of communication with the back room where they slept. The front room where guests were received was carefully whitewashed, or in the houses of nobles, painted in various colors or designs; it had no door but was open all the length of the front of the house, and was sheltered from sun and rain by the eaves which usually descended very low.[1128] There was always a doorway in the rear for the use of all the inmates. The fact of there being no doors made it a point of honor among them not to rob or injure each other's houses. The poor people built the houses of the rich.[1129] A new dwelling could not be occupied until it had been formally blessed and purged of the evil spirit.[1130]
NICARAGUAN DWELLINGS.
In Nicaragua, the dwellings were mostly made of canes, and thatched with straw. In the large cities the houses of the nobles were built upon platforms several feet in height, but in the smaller towns the residences of all classes were of the same construction, except that those of the chiefs were larger and more commodious. Some, however, appear to have been built of stone.[1131] Of the dwellings in Guatemala, still less is said. Villagutierre mentions a Lacandone village in which were one hundred and three houses with sloping thatched roofs, supported upon stout posts. The front of each house was open, but the back and sides were closed with a strong stockade. The interior was divided into several apartments. Cogolludo says that their houses were covered with plaster, like those of Yucatan.[1132]
The house, or rather shed, near the Gulf of Dulce, in which Cortés stayed, had no walls, the roof resting upon posts.[1133] In other parts of Guatemala he saw 'large houses with thatched roofs.'[1134] Gage does not give a glowing account of their dwellings. "Their houses," he writes, "are but poor thatched Cottages, without any upper rooms, but commonly one or two only rooms below, in the one they dress their meat in the middle of it, making a compass for fire, with two or three stones, without any other chimney to convey the smoak away, which spreading it self about the room, filleth the thatch and the rafters so with sut, that all the room seemeth to be a chimney. The next unto it, is not free from smoak and blackness, where sometimes are four or five beds according to the family. The poorer sort have but one room, where they eat, dress their meat and sleep."[1135] Las Casas tells us that when the Guatemalans built a new house they were careful to dedicate an apartment to the worship of the household gods; there they burned incense and offered domestic sacrifices upon an altar erected for the purpose.[1136]
HOUSEHOLD FURNITURE.
Little is said about the interior appointment and decoration of dwellings. Landa mentions that in Yucatan they used bedsteads made of cane,[1137] and the same is said of Nicaragua by Oviedo, who adds that they used a small four-legged bench of fine wood for a pillow.[1138] In Guatemala, there was in each room a sort of bedstead large enough to accommodate four grown persons, and other small ones for the children.[1139] Brasseur de Bourbourg gives a description of gorgeous furniture used in the houses of the wealthy in Yucatan, but unfortunately the learned Abbé has for his only authority on this point the somewhat apocryphal Ordoñez' MS. The stools, he writes, on which they seated themselves cross-legged after the Oriental fashion, were of wood and precious metals, and were often made in the shape of some animal or bird; they were covered with deer-skins, tanned with great care, and embroidered with gold and precious stones. The interior-walls were sometimes hung with similar skins, though they were more frequently decorated with paintings on a red or blue ground. Curtains of finest texture and most brilliant colors fell over the doorways, and the stucco floors were covered with mats made of exquisite workmanship. Rich hued cloths covered the tables. The plate would have done honor to a Persian satrap. Graceful vases of chased gold, alabaster or agate, worked with exquisite art, delicate painted pottery, excelling that of Etruria, candelabra for the great odorous pine torches, metal braziers diffusing sweet perfumes, a multitude of petits riens, such as little bells and grotesquely shaped whistles for summoning attendants, in fact all the luxuries which are the result of an advanced civilization, were, according to Brasseur de Bourbourg, to be found in the houses of the Maya nobility.[1140]